The paper discusses new requirements imposed by the emergence of technologies (being developed to meet world energy needs) on existing environmental analytical capabilities. A three-phase, multimedia, environmental assessment scheme has been designed and implemented which characterizes the chemical and biological impact of process streams. Level 1 is a screening phase which emphasizes completeness of detection of elements, classes of organic materials, and acute biological responses. Level 2 seeks to identify specific substances identified in Level 1 as potential environmental problems and confirm the biological response. Level 3 is a quantitative study of the effect of process variables on the emission rate of specific substances indicated in Level 2. To demonstrate the effectiveness of Level 1, the quantitative and semi-quantitative organic results are derived from experimental data. The Level 1 results are then compared with the Level 2 technique of gas-chromatography/mass-spectroscopy. For this data it was seen that Level 1 is very efficient for the detection of pollutants while broad enough to cover a complete source characterization.